January Meeting Take Aways

New CCPTA Blogsite:   http://arlingtonccpta.blogspot.com/

Reflections Ceremony: The Arlington County Council of  PTA’s (CCPTA) will host a countywide ceremony at 7:00 p.m. preceded by a reception at 6:30 on Thursday, January 17, 2013, in the Washington-Lee High School auditorium to honor Arlington’s  PTA Reflections contest participants who prepared winning entries in six categories on the theme “The Magic of A Moment.”  (A SNOW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED IF NEEDED)

Community Presentation:  Doorways for Women and Children is a nonprofit organization aimed at assisting women and families out of domestic violence and homelessness.  The presenters underscored the prevalence of homelessness among our APS students and illustrated the effects of homelessness and poverty on these students, including decreased performance and increased drop-out rates.   The attached presentation (will be sent under separate cover) details many ways the APS community can contribute to Doorways.  It was pointed out that since this groups serves children - it is an organization that school age children may be able to identify with and therefore may be interesting partnership for PTAs.

Boundaries: Meg Tuccillo presented on the ongoing process.  

The Boundary Tool is now available and may provide for an interesting exercise for PTAs 

Boundary Survey -  Arlington Public Schools is conducting a survey of the seven schools (Ashlawn, Glebe, Jamestown, McKinley, Nottingham, Taylor and Tuckahoe) involved in boundary decisions for the new elementary school on the Williamsburg site and other boundary adjustments for those existing schools to address capacity issues. 

Budget:  The new budget tool is now open to the public - Click here to start using the tool. The deadline to make suggestions is close of business on Fri, Feb. 1.

Social Networking - APS is now on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArlingtonPublicSchools 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/APSVirginia 

YouTube: APSVAvideo (www.youtube.com/user/apsvavideo)  

Reflections - THIS THURSDAY!!!

The Arlington County Council of PTA’s (CCPTA) will host a countywide ceremony at 7:00 p.m. preceded by a reception at 6:30 on Thursday, January 17, 2013, in the Washington-Lee High School auditorium to honor Arlington’s PTA Reflections contest participants who prepared winning entries in six categories on the theme “The Magic of A Moment.”

Arlington Public Schools Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Murphy, School Board members Dr. Emma Violand-Sánchez (Chair), Sally Baird, James Lander, Abby Raphael, and Noah Simon, and County Council of PTAs president Laura Novak will be on hand to congratulate the students and present awards.

The Reflections ceremony will feature student performances as well as a display of the pieces entered.  All student participants will be announced and recognized on stage. Arlington Educational Television will videotape the ceremony for later broadcast.

The annual Arlington County Reflections program was coordinated by Michael Swisher and Ted Hayes.  The program feeds into the State and National PTA, and is designed to spur students to create works in musical composition, literature, visual arts, photography, dance choreography, and film/video production.  Students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade are eligible to enter; in addition, this year a new category for students with special needs was available.  Arlington students submitted over 1,200 pieces at their local schools under this year’s theme, “The Magic of A Moment.” Top entries received an award of Outstanding Interpretation at the county level and are entered into competition in the Northern Virginia District PTA. The contest continues at the state and national levels.